WJLA is reporting today that a new office within the District government has been created to better coordinate outreach to the growing population of African immigrants in the city and region. D.C. Mayor Anthony Williams has stated that the new office will help serve the 400,000 African immigrants that have come to the area in recent years, and will join similar offices that serve Latinos, Asians and Pacific Islanders and gay, lesbian and transgender people. Even though African immigrants represent only 12.5 percent of the District’s foreign-born population, thousands commute in from the surrounding region and work in various industries, from owning restaurants to driving cabs.

The idea for the new office was introduced by Council-member Vincent Orange (D-Ward 5) last November, and initially met with skepticism from the mayor’s office, which noted, “The major concern the mayor would have with this is the trend toward balkanization of the government.”

Maybe the new Office of African Affairs can finally settle the debate over whether or not the stretch of Ninth Street in Shaw will officially be designated “Little Ethiopia” or not.